I have known Rodney Paglialong of Wall-Pro Painting Services inc. for quite a few years now.

When we first met, I was looking for a job and he hired me as an apprentice painter. I already had several years of practical graphic design experience under my belt and I was learning web development as well, so before long, Rodney decided to have me design his logo and first website.

The logo, I am proud to say, is still looking classy and with a mild re-branding it fit’s well into all of his marketing materials including his website.

His original website looked nice enough for a beginner built site:

Of course, this was one of my first attempts at web development and design. There was no responsive theme, no planning for mobile devices at all actually, and very little attention paid to search engine optimization or even user experience beyond a vague notion that the site should be navigable and fairly neat.

When I moved to Ecuador in 2011 I was working a ‘regular’ 9 to 5 job for internet marketers who were living there in a town called Vilcabamba, and we stopped keeping track of updates on Wall-Pro.

I wasn’t trying to run my own business as a web designer or consultant at that time. I was happy to be spending time working and developing my talents under the tutelage of successful internet entrepreneurs, and so over time, with very little attention paid to software updates and upgrades, the Wall-Pro website eventually broke:

I was in the height of my learning and working and I was spending long days working on web stores like http://therawfoodworld.com and online information products like http://juicefeast.com.  So, Rodney had a friend patch the site up a bit and it looked ok; it got the job done for a while:

 

Shortly after my return to the United States I went into business for myself as Arise Advertising Arts, and as soon as I opened up shop, Rodney was one of my first clients!

We talked about business cards, adhesive labels, carbonless forms and various other printing projects, but the thing he was most eager to update was his website.

He told me:

I think I’m suffering from website shame. . . It’s when you tell your prospective clients, “Uh, yeah… I have a website… but… you should probably just call me… or email me… or… just don’t go to my website.”

I think that’s a common condition for many small business owners who know that they need to be online, but have a website that just doesn’t represent the level of quality that the company deserves to be known for.

Wall-Pro Painting Services inc. is a company with a lot of integrity and Rodney hires quality craftsmen with many years of experience. His worksites are always clean when he leaves and the finished product is beautiful. The website he had simply didn’t do him or his company justice.

So we built a new one.

A slight re-branding of the logo for the header:

We had already used this shape for the heading on print materials and proposals this was just a softer take on the Wall-Pro yellow with a gradient giving it a slightly rounded feel and the nostalgic reminiscence of a brass band. (Rodney is actually a talented musician and plays percussion regularly for the Woodstock City Band on Wednesday nights in the square)

We made sure the Wall-Pro fonts were represented throughout the site for consistent brand presentation:

The Wall-Pro brand combines the fluid and classy Bickham Script with the classic stoicism of Trajan Pro. (Trajan Pro is one of my personal favorites and it is the Arise Advertising Arts font as well). We used Bickham as the title font and Trajan for most of the headings.

Another one of our major goals was to showcase some of Rodney’s work, and so we set out to create a triple-image-slider on the homepage that utilizes the space to deliver three times the effective imaging in three main categories of Wall-Pro’s expertise, Interiors, Exteriors, and Faux Finishing:

With the same goal in mind, we also included a modern image gallery feature with a beautiful  responsive presentation:

And because Rodney recently won the Painting and Decorating Contractors of  America’s 2014 Craftsman of the Year Award, we made sure to showcase the PDCA video as well.

We developed a custom contact form with Rodney standing next to it:

And notice that there is an option for scheduling your own appointments online:

We even created custom social media icons to match the site in Wall-Pro brown:

 The final project is a vision we believe speaks to Wall-Pro Painting Services’ unique personality and dedicated craftsmanship. Click the picture below to visit the site yourself!